1916] INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN CANADA 145 
duction of the cotton fields of the Southern States. This great industry 
moreover, is owned and controlled by the interests which hold these 
cotton-bearing areas, and the output though manufactured by Canadian 
developed power is not available for the fertilisation of our own fields. 
It is but one example of how a large percentage of the electrical 
power developed on the Canadian side of the Niagara River is 
sequestrated. Through lack of enterprise on our part and through 
concessions granted to foreign controlled organisations a large 
proportion of our electrical power is now diverted from Canada 
and is being used to develop the industries and increase the pro- 
duction and the wealth of our neighbours to the south of us. This 
is not as it should be. And I venture to suggest that if we would con- 
serve one of the greatest sources of our national wealth, we should see 
to it at once that the exportation of electrical power is gradually dimin- 
ished and that it ultimately ceases. This is the policy I may add that 
we have so successfully pursued in conserving our supplies of natural 
gas. We should seek to establish on our own side of the border all 
forms of industry in which electricity and its power capabilities can be 
used. Moreover in this electrical power we should never forget that we 
have at hand especially in what is known technically as the “off peak 
load”’ a supply of energy which might with proper development be used to 
replace in part at least the coal which we obtain at ever increasing cost 
from the United States. The time will come, yes, I believe it is near, when 
the export of hard coal from the United States to us will cease. We should 
be prepared for this eventuality and should systematically proceed 
to develop to the utmost limit the power capabilities of every fall of 
water throughout the whole length and breadth of Canada. Along 
that path lies national safety and national wealth and prosperity. 
With the example of the successful operation of the central heating 
plant of the University of Toronto before us we see what a simple 
engineering problem it is to heat a large group of widely scattered 
buildings. The whole of the city of Toronto could be readily and 
easily heated from a number of central heating stations just as it is 
now supplied with water and illuminating gas. I venture to suggest 
that steps should be taken immediately to develop this field. We 
could I believe to a considerable degree heat our towns and cities with 
the hydraulic power which at the present time we are either allowing to 
go to waste or which we are failing properly and efficiently to develop. 
MINERALS AND METALS. 
At the outbreak of the war it was found that the supply even within 
our Empire, of such metals as zinc, nickel, mercury, and the rarer metals, 
